Month: February 2017

Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival

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This year Melbourne’s largest celebration fashion is running for ten, gorgeous days. Aiming to be bigger and better than the previous years, the festival will include world-class runway events from well-known, and up and coming Australian designers, beauty workshops, industry Q&A’s, live entertainment and more. Not just restricted to Melbourne CBD, the festival will this year kick off with smaller Fashion Weekend events in key shopping meccas like Chapel Street, High Street, Chadstone and Glenferrie Road – all activated with exclusive discounts and activities for shoppers, but will really ramp up with the Vogue / David Jones Gala Runway to be held at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton on the 14th of March. For those who are more into the countercultural or functional elements of fashion, there are several interesting workshops running like ‘Sequin-Savvy: The History of Calisthenics Fashion’ and an International Women’s Day forum breakfast on 8 March, presented by Marie Claire and Mimco. Don’t forget to check out the Priceline Pharmacy Festival of Beauty pop, located in the Plaza, just outside the …

Proud to Be a Chef Awards

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Do you love cheese as much as we do? Is dairy THE diet you can’t go without? Fonterra, a global co-operatively owned company which sources high-quality milk products recently hosted the annual Proud To Be A Chef Awards, and we were lucky to be invited to their gala dinner this year. The program has been running for 18 years and this year, with no surprise, was an amazing success for both Fonterra and the contestants. Each year, Fonterra Foodservice provide a not-to-be-missed opportunity for 30+ young and ambitious apprentice chefs to go on an incredible culinary experience. Giles Gabutina, the winner of Proud To Be A Chef 2017 is a young inspiring pastry chef based in Sydney. He got his first job in the kitchen when he was 16 and is keen to work hard to achieve his culinary dreams. In his own words “I hope to “bake” the world a better place by inspiring people to follow their dreams in the same way my inspirations have done for me.” And here he is today, not only the winner of Proud To Be A Chef …

Rainy Day Activities in Melbourne

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Don’t let Melbourne’s four seasons in one day get you down. So it’s a little wet outside, no problem, we’re used to the changes in weather here (it’s why we layer, it’s in our DNA), so to help with your rainy day plans, we’ve gathered our top 5 rainy day activities here in Melbourne, so you can still enjoy the day, AND stay dry. Enjoy… 1. Hit the Arcarde Games up at Bartronica Bar This place will take you back to your teenage years on a rainy day, enjoy drinks from the bar whilst playing your favourite arcarde games from the 80’s and 90’s . Classic games on offer include the original Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and our favourite, the Simpsons. Wizards can also test their skills on the bar’s collection  of  pinball machines that date back to the seventies. 335 Flinders Ln, Melbourne 2. Go Indoor Rock Climbing Not only will this activity keep you out of the elements, but it’s fun AND you’ll get fit at the same time. (Bonus) Bring a …

Arts Review: All This Living

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As the intro to this piece states, ‘age comes to us all you know,’ we’re reminded of this in the opening act, a recollection of a bathroom encounter, when some young pretty things, applying lipstick in the mirror, label the character, Jay, portrayed beautifully by Camilla Blunden, ‘just an old woman.’ This comment, makes it real for her, and thus launches the rest of the performance where she digs deeply into the phenomenon of getting old, and how over time, older women somehow lose their voice, become invisible, and incorrectly feel they have become a burden to society. As the piece progresses, she attempts to turn these beliefs on their head, re-empowering women, as wise, important, highly visible beings with stories to tell, all the while batting off the inner voices that creep up, and try to convince her otherwise. This show was difficult to follow in parts, as the narrative jumped from whimsical inner thought to thought, from real life to fantasy through paint stores, pots and pans, to magical woods filled with fiery …

Keeping Fit Like a Melbournian

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We’ve gathered together five, true-Melbourne-style ways to keep fit all year round, like a true-blue Melbournian would…. 1. Run the Tan For the uninitiated, the tan is that fabulous dirt running track which encircles the city Royal Botanical Gardens. If you are lucky, you’ll enjoy looping past the Yarra River section whilst a concert is on at the Sidney Myer Musical Bowl, if you aren’t… you’ll come a-cropper on Heartbreak Hill like most of us end up doing. The tan is an easy stroll or short tram ride from the city, is around 3.85km for one loop, and the quickest lap ever was 10 minutes and 12 seconds, run by Craig Mottram in 2004. At 7.30am on the first Saturday of every month, the Victorian Road Runners offers 4 km and 8 km time-trials around the Tan Track.   2. Try something different – like Silent Disco Yoga Yep, how cool does that sound? On 21 March, Melbournian yogi’s can hit up an After Dark Silent Yoga Disco, 90 minutes of Vinyasa style yoga hosted …

Eat, drink, make & learn

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Are you passionate about coffee making? Is it pasta you crave at the end of your long day? Ever wanted to master your home made coffee brewing skills? Or is indulging in cheese one of your daily routines? The Craft & Co, a collective leaning centre in Collingwood offers classes in all of these areas and more for those with an interest in the culinary and arts. The Craft & Co works with local producers in Melbourne and offers classes ranging from salami making, pasta making, coffee cupping, brewing for beginners, cheese making,  learning why bees matter so much or exploring the magic behind craft distillation. All classes are $75, 3-hours long and including a tasting, one in-house brewing beverage, questionnaires and hands-on experience. If you are unsure what class you should take, you can even try out their free pasta or wine making demo class on Sundays to get a feel for the courses. Here is a sneak peak of what you get from the classes: Pasta Making: All attendees enjoy freshly made pasta, …

Dog Lover’s Show 2017 T&Cs

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PRIVACY: We are committed to the privacy of your information. We do not, and will not, distribute, disclose or sell any of your personal information to third parties, other than as required by law or as necessary to process a payment. By entering the contest, you agree to release the Competition Entities, Instagram and Facebook and Twitter from all responsibility or liability for damages, losses or injuries of any kind resulting from participation in the Competition or any prize-related activities, if any, or any awarding, possession, use and/or misuse of prize(s), if any, awarded herein. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. You are providing your information to ErdiGroup Hotel Collection and not to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.   TERMS AND CONDITIONS The Promoter is ErdiGroup Hotel Collection (ABN 58 328 593 784 & 50 693 006 965)  of 195 Swanston Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000. Information on how to enter and prizes forms part of the terms of entry. Entry into the competition is deemed …

Valentine’s Day in Melbourne

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Suddenly, the post-Christmas bliss of January is over and we find ourselves well into February, and if you are a commercially influenced romantic at heart (like us)…. Valentine’s Day. The pressure mounts every year for some, the need to outdo the previous year, or perhaps impress a new love interest, coupled with the fear of failure and rejection. Never fear, we’ve gathered together a top 5 list of things to do in and around Melbourne this Valentine’s Day (or close enough to..) for those who aren’t smartly already planning to rock out at Guns N Roses that night. 1. Coburg Drive In Food Truck Festival – Fifty Shades Darker The smell of the popcorn, the coziness of the car… the drive-in is a perfect date night, and at the Coburg Drive-In and Food Truck Festival you can also combine that with an insatiable lust for delicious food from all of your favorite Melbourne food trucks like Yo India, Real Burgers, Mamma Van, our pick – Mary Had a Little Lamb, to name a few. On …

Arts Review: Sad Digger Mad Mary

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Digger, a shell-shocked soldier, sent back from the war for reasons which become clearer as the story progresses, lives hermit-style in a gum leaf shanty in the Australian bush with his little mate Bluey (expertly played by a toy dog on a skateboard), trying to escape the war, his personal persecution and memories which haunt him about a man he once loved. Before going into this one-man show, you’d be forgiven for thinking it might just contain some pretty heavy content, but then suddenly, the story takes a colorful, unexpected twist in the way that all fringe theatre productions do. Enter Mary Poppins, a character dreamed up by Digger’s tormented madness, to save him from himself. But a Mary Poppins interpreted as you’ve never seen her before… meaner, nastier, shinier, better, more interesting, hilarious. Through Mary’s tough-love guidance, inter-space and time travel, Digger is able to finally find his true self, and free himself from the shackles imposed by an earlier time, emerging as a strong, proud individual Sad Digger Mad Mary is weird, but …

Summer Seafood Sensation

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Originally a Queenslander, I have to say, I’m pretty into seafood, I could shell prawns before I knew my times tables, in my family… if you didn’t peel your own prawns, you didn’t get any, so you learned pretty quickly the art of the perfectly peeled prawn. So, with the herald of this ripper summer weather in Melbourne (warm sunny nights, daylight savings, two dinners…) its pretty exciting for us to see a fresh new offering in Shark Bay Summer Seafood Sensations, running at Southbank restaurant, Left Bank from 5 February until 22 March. Imagine sitting back, drinking a gorgeous, crisp glass of white, matched with fresh, Shark Bay prawns and blue swimmer crab sliders by the banks of the Yarra on a glorious Melbourne night… that’s what we did recently when invited to taste this special limited edition menu. Stand outs for us were without a doubt the fresh prawn cocktail, and marinated king prawns on bamboo skewers. The skewers came in four flavours, but the bourbon, chili honey was the real star of …